Fear busting tools

Fear:Many children struggle with common childhood fears every day. Fears of the dark, storms, medical procedures, and new places are just a few examples of common fear triggers. Childhood fears are amplified by a child’s imagination and difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy. Courage Critters helps a child to use their imagination to empower, support and protect them in situations that cause many of these common childhood fears. As a Courage Club member you will learn ways to communicate with your child about emotions and develop a plan to overcome these fears. This page will provide you with a brief description of the helpful skills that you will have access to as a Courage Club member. You will have access to these pages when your Critter arrives with the special password on the Courage Card in the back pocket.

The Standing Up to Your Fear Bully Plan will help children to identify their fear bully and the impact it has on their behaviors. There will be questions to help guide you and your child through this process. Once you know what you are dealing with, then we will develop a plan to gradually stand up to the fear bully! This is where your child grows some HUGE emotional muscles! You will learn how to measure your child's fear and make small goals to gradually change your child's behavior. There is an example of how to set up this plan under the tab, Example: Standing Up to Your Fear Bully Plan.

The Good Coach Thinking page will show you how to identify the "fear bully talk" inside of your child's mind. When we know what the fear bully is saying, we can start to challenge and change those thoughts into "good coach thinking". There are a series of short questions to help you identify, challenge and change your child's thoughts. This is another great way to overcome fear. The tab, Example: Good Coach Thinking can show you how to use this skill.

Relaxation is another important skill that you can practice with your child. When we are scared there are many changes that take place in our bodies. It is called the "fight or flight" reaction. Just think of a time when you were startled. You might have noticed that your heart was beating hard or that your breathing changed. Once the fight or flight part of our brain is triggered, it can take some time to calm down. There are many relaxation tools that can help our mind and body become calm. You will find an example of one under the tab, Relaxing Breath. This can be a great tool to use when your child is feeling scared, having a hard time focusing, or having difficulty falling asleep.

We can't wait to teach all of these skills to you! Join our Courage Club by purchasing your Courage Critter today.​Be sure to keep coming back to the website because we will be adding more skills for you and your child to learn!

Courage Critters is not the same as psychotherapy and is not intended to replace advice from your therapist or pediatrician. It may be helpful to speak with a therapist about certain issues. Please see our Resource page for additional information.